Regional bank (Japan)

A regional bank in a Japanese term (地方銀行 = "Chihō ginkō" or 地銀 = "Chigin") for one of the 50 or so banks with its head office in the capital city of one of the 47 prefectures of Japan, serving mainly its local prefectural customers.

Examples of the regional banks are: Bank of Yokohama which is headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Hachijuni Bank with its head office in Nagano, Nagano, and Kagoshima Bank, which recently merged with Higo Bank (肥後銀行) in Kumamoto, Kumamoto to become Kyushu Financial Group.

The regional bank is in contrast to the city bank (都市銀行 ="Toshi ginkō" or 都銀 = "Togin") with its head office in Tokyo or Osaka, Japan's two largest cities. Each of these banks have a wide network of branches in the larger cities of Japan. There are five city banks: MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, Mizuho Bank, and two Resona Banks.